The official website of Dr. Robert J. Meyers, the developer of CRAFT
Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening (2003). Robert J. Meyers & Brenda L. Wolfe.
See also The Parents' 20 Minute Guide to Change, published by the Center for Motivation and Change
You’d be forgiven if ear acupuncture isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when talk turns to substance use disorder. Numerous studies, however, are documenting the efficacy of a specific procedure (the NADA protocol) for help with craving, withdrawal, and other aspects of addiction. As this article points out, however, the key to success with NADA lies in the details.
Childhood trauma of any kind leaves its mark. Severe or sustained trauma generates certain telltale symptoms in survivors. Licensed therapist and life coach Patrick Teahan, himself a survivor of childhood trauma, breaks down three of the most prominent symptoms. By reaching a deeper understanding of what’s occurring inside us, he argues, we’re in a far better position to overcome the challenges that result.
Some solid, simple guidelines that can reduce (not eliminate) the health risks associated with cannabis. There’s no such thing as zero-risk cannabis use, but this one-page reference sheet from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research provides an excellent, straightforward guide to lowering that risk.
The Recovery Research Institute, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, is dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of addiction. This page on substance use and the family is an extremely well-designed information hub. It’s a great place to start your journey to deeper understanding—or to remind yourself of the basics.
Methamphetamine use is a national crisis—but not one the drug industry has taken much interest in. Fortunately, that may at last be changing, and not a moment too soon. As this article makes clear, both meth users and treatment providers need all the help they can get.
In 2021, only 6% of people in the U.S. struggling with substance use disorder received any treatment, according to this year’s SAMHSA report. That is just one of a great many statistics gathered in this report. Its findings should concern us all.
As one of the world’s leading researchers and thinkers on trauma, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk knows better than to offer solutions to this most intricate of problems. In this video series, he brilliantly describes the contours of trauma, community, and individualism, shedding brilliant light on the search for one’s own path to recovery.
In this second part of his discussion on healing trauma—which is perfectly understandable on its own—celebrated psychologist and author Bessel van der Kolk will leave you feeling both hopeful and humbled. Whether it’s professional-administered psychedelics, EMDR, or yoga, he sees a world of promise for trauma sufferers. But he also stresses that these treatments, like trauma itself, are something we’re just beginning to understand.
Early trauma and addiction are painfully connected. Understanding that connection can help us recover from both. Addiction, says physician and author Gabor Maté, is not fundamentally a brain disorder or a consequence of genetics. Rather, it’s a doomed attempt to escape the pain and suffering rooted in childhood trauma. For anyone with a Loved One struggling with substance use, this connection is vital to understand.
We are hardwired to respond strongly to trauma—and those responses can linger even when the source of trauma’s gone. In Part One of a marvelous discussion, psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk helps us understand our own involuntary behavior when faced with (or remembering) trauma, and how we can change that behavior for the better.
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